RABAT/PARIS: Morocco has halted judicial cooperation with France, blocking procedures from prisoner transfers to joint investigations, officials said yesterday, in a growing dispute with its former colonial ruler over allegations of human rights abuses.
French President Francois Hollande spoke to the Moroccan king this week to try to defuse the rare row with Rabat, an ally under fire from rights groups over police abuses, press freedom and judicial independence.
Rabat on Saturday summoned the French ambassador after French police went to the Moroccan Embassy in Paris seeking to question the head of the domestic intelligence service over torture allegations, following lawsuits filed against him in France by French-Moroccan activists.
“We haven’t received any explanation regarding the seven French police officers who went to question the head of the territorial surveillance,” Moroccan government spokesman Mustapha Khalfi told reporters.
“That damaged the integrity of the Moroccan judiciary system ... That is why we decided to suspend the whole judicial cooperation with France until an update of those agreements.”
Lawyers and officials said the move affected cooperation on penal matters such as joint investigations, prisoner transfers and extraditions. Also blocked will be civil procedures for dual French-Moroccan nationals, who number almost 700,000, such as marriages, custody of children issues and divorces. There are about 170 French citizens held in Moroccan prisons.
Morocco’s justice ministry had earlier said it had recalled one of its judges who had been liaising on judicial matters.
France’s foreign minister had said on Wednesday he hoped the dispute was in the past after speaking to his Moroccan counterpart.
REUTERS
